The Art of Pet Chickens

If i am being honest I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to blog on this site again because we have given away the three chickens that have always been featured here. We gave them to a sanctuary where they will live out the rest of their lives. But I have some very exciting news! In my biology class we hatched little adorable baby chicks and my teacher allowed me to take some home, so I will now be a chicken owner once again! These little baby chicks are also Golden Laced Wyandottes which we didn’t know at the time we agreed to take some, seven exactly, off of her hands. It will work out great though because Mable always layed the best eggs and was, in my opinion, the prettiest! I am so so excited for these new chickens, pictures of the baby chicks will be up soon.

I haven’t been posting lately, I know I know, shame on me! But hey, let’s get caught up! My three chickens are still with us, however they are not laying as much anymore, infact we haven’t gotten any eggs in the past week at least. We have been toying with the idea of getting new chickens, and if we do decide on that I will make sure to keep you updated on all of it! Our two chickens, Pippa and Mable, have become extremely rude to JoJo, who was originally the runt of the litter. We still notice depressed qualities in her behavior. Such as constantly lying down, never putting her tail up, lack of movement unless absolutely necessary and cowering in the presence of the other two chickens. In the simplest ways, Pippa and Mable have become straight up bullies to JoJo and I don’t like it one bit! They constantly peck at her and keep her from eating special treats or even getting near them. Maybe I am too emotional about it, but I feel so bad for JoJo! Sometimes I think about getting rid of just Pippa and Mable and keeping JoJo so she wouldn’t have to be tortured by them anymore. Anyway, we have also notice an extremely defensive and aggressive personality that has been instilled into Pippa. Red Stars are extremely scary in my eyes. My neighbors have some as well and theirs act just the same as ours do. They constantly follow you and creep up on you, then they peck at your feet and ankles and squawk at you all the time! It is honestly terrifying, well I guess as terrifying as a chicken can be! Anyway to end the update, our top contenders for our new chicken breed is either Brahmas, because we read of their consistent laying, overall docility and their delightfulness in households with dogs. And/Or Silkies because they don’t ruin your garden and eat all your grass, plus they are absolutely adorable. The only downside to Silkies is the size of their eggs, which I don’t mind, but the rest of my family seems to think they are too small.

Hey Guys! Well, it’s official, JoJo is diagnosed with Chanxiety, a terrible medical condition in which one chicken is brutally bullied by her coop mates. No, but in all seriousness JoJo is seriously depressed. At first we thought it might be technical conditions, but i have diagnosed her with depression and anxiety. She is harassed by the other chickens, Mable and JoJo, who have ganged up on her and ridiculed her. They pluck at her feathers, push her, shove her out of the way, sometimes they just peck her. They are true jerks who are consistently rude to the point where JoJo has no where safe to go and not a single second of peace. It makes me unbelievably sad to see her in this state. It’s almost like school where the popular “chick” (haha), Pippa, and her obnoxious air-head friend, Mable, pick on the new girl, JoJo, because she’s smaller and weaker and not stylish. Quick reminder that JoJo was the runt. JoJo is being bullied by these chickens and I have no idea how to stop it. They are forced to live in the same space, which requires no place for JoJo to hide. She really needs some friends. I wouldn’t want to put her on her own because i don’t think solitary confinement would be any better, and i don’t want to introduce her to any new chickens at this age, because the same thing might happen. I think what Pippa needs to understand is that I OWN her, literally, I could cook her, I could throw her in the garbage can, I could chop her head off, I could kill her, i could cover her in peanut butter and let my dogs loose. OF COURSE I WOULD NEVER DO THESE THINGS THEY ARE CRUEL AND I AM FULLY AGAINST ANIMAL ABUSE ANIMALS HAVE FEELINGS TOO. What I am saying is that Pippa needs like, Chicken therapy, which is absurd. And Mable needs to stop following Pippa’s acts of bullying towards JoJo. And JoJo needs some self confidence. She never walks around, she is offend laying down, she ALWAYS has her tail down, she never squawks or makes any noise, and she always has this overall gloomy zombie-chicken-looking feel to her. OVERALL, this upsets me greatly, and because I can not be JoJo’s bodyguard 24/7 I will read up and find a way to help my issue, no matter what. Expect an update to this issue in the near future. TOGETHER WE CAN STAND UP TO CHICKEN BULLYING!

HEY! I feel like i had to post and i really wanted to, but nothing super new has been happening. Our chickens became pretty much dormant throughout our brutal winter. We didn’t get any eggs and barely heard them squawk! (Which is quite suprising because our chickens are a noisy bunch) Well as i predicted, they started up laying again once the weather warmed up, and we’re on our normal schedule now. So don’t be alarmed if your chickens stop laying over the winter, especially this cold of a winter. Anyway, our neighbors ( the ones mentioned in the last post) MIGHT have a rooster/hen Silkie if anyone around Chicago is interested, just leave a comment and I’ll make sure to let them know! So I’m sorry for the short post, but I promise I’ll make a super long one (with pictures!) when it gets all nice a summer-y!🙂

Recently, our smallest hen, JoJo, has been walking around with her tail down. We see this activity especially around our other two chickens. She was always the runt of the group so it is possible that she is feeling intimidated, or being “bullied” by the other chickens. It could also be that she is egg bound. This is a very serious problem that is not very common with chickens, but it obviously does occur. Being eggbound means that your chicken has an egg stuck in their oviduct. Signs of an eggbound hen are a droopy tail, she is fluffed up, acting lethargic, sitting/laying on the ground most of the time, fatigue, closed eyes, lack of energy, or dragging wings. If she is straining herself throughout the day or on occasion is also another sign. if you feel an egg-shaped lump, that’s pretty much all the proof you need to know you must take action. reasons why she may be eggbound could be because her pelvis simply isn’t big enough, she isn’t getting enough calcium, she has too much protein, stress, bad quality feed, or dehydration. One way to help your chicken is to first, feed her more electrolytes and give her a better source of calcium, the other process is to fill a tray with a shallow amount of warm water, tall enough to soak your chickens bottom in. While she is in the water you should massage her abdomen area. After soaking her for 5-10 minutes take her out a dry her with a towel. If it is winter time use a hair dryer on the lowest setting, or make usre she is COMPLETELY dry before letting her back outside. keep your chicken in a quiet dark cage, such as a do crate with a towel draped over the top, then put a heating pad under a towel in the crate and leave her to herself for a while. You want a moist heated environment. Continue the soaking every hour or so until she lays her egg. As a last resort you can go to a veternarian for help. Hope this helped! Any questions? Just comment below!

Hey y’all! So, first of all i would like to proudly say that I have now seen my chicken lay an egg, with my own eyes, for the second time! It can be kinda gross, but it’s also pretty cool. I would not recommend spying on your chickens though when their in the coop, it’s a warning sign for “leave me alone!” or “Important egg laying in process, do not disturb!” Your chicken will probably start squawking very violently at you, and may even sound vaguely like a rooster, that’s your cue to back off. They are obviously angry. Nonetheless it was pretty cool. Also, the meaning for this post was to tell you about how are neighbors, two houses down, have come into the at of chicken keeping, too! They purchased three Silkies and one Red Star. They are un aware of the of the gender of the Silkies, and where I live you are only allowed to keep female birds. They will only be in possesion of three birds, so even if all three of the Silkies are females they will have to get rid of one of them. I recommend trading them in to your local fed store in return for feed or, if you have only one chicken you don’t want, to just donate it to the store. The Silkies are a great chicken to get if you are new to chicken keeping or if you have a very nice garden and or yard you would like to keep that way. The Silkies are a smaller bird that on’t peck and tear as much at vegetation as other birds do. The most common colors are white and black, but if you are planning on getting a Silkie make sure you get at least two because they do not like to travel alone and they can get depressed, not lay eggs, get broody, or become aggresive. The Red Stars are usually the boss of the other chickens, they can be very pushy and like to lead, so you need to keep that in mind when buying your birds. The Red Stars do lay very big eggs though. Chicken Keeping is a growing art that many families are starting to get in to, it’s so much fun and also a super awesome thing to do if you have kids! If you just got chickens take a picture of the cute fluffy buys and post it to the hashtag #chickenswithjulia I would love to see them!

It is important to know that even if your chicken is very large or fat, it doesn’t always mean that they will lay large eggs. The skinniest chicken in my “flock” is the one that lays the largest ones and double yolks. The fattest one sometimes lays no eggs at all or small ones. Our srawniest chicken lays bigger eggs, but they are on the pale side. All chickens lay different eggs and it has nothing to do with appearence of the chicken, research a chickens qualities before purchasing one to ensure that you get all your desired needs filled!